Rhino Poacher Trampled To Death By An Elephant And Then Eaten By Lions, Because Karma Is Real

Kim Wong-Shing is a staff writer at LittleThings. Her work spans beauty, wellness, pop culture, identity, food, and other topics. She is a contributing writer at NaturallyCurly, and her work has also appeared in HelloGiggles, Lifehacker, Wear Your Voice Magazine, and other outlets. She grew up in Philadelphia, attended Brown University, and is now based in New Orleans.

A rhino poacher in Kruger National Park in South Africa was trampled to death by an elephant. Then his remains were eaten by a pride of lions. All that was left of the man at the end? A skull and a pair of pants.

The man was hunting for rhinoceroses illegally with four other poachers; those four are now in police custody.

“Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise, it holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that,” park manager Glenn Phillips said in a statement through South African National Parks.

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It’s a tragic story, but honestly, it also looks a lot like karma. People on social media are straight-up rejoicing that justice was served.

The park offers plenty of activities for wildlife lovers, from guided safaris to hotel stays.

Unfortunately, the park also draws the attention of poachers in search of rhino horns. South Africa is home to over 80% of the world’s rhinos, per the New York Times. In 2017 alone, 504 rhinos were successfully poached in the park, reported the Daily Maverick.

The other men carried the man’s body to a road so that he’d be discovered by passersby in the morning, and they called one of his relatives to let them know what happened. Then they notified the police, who dispatched Kruger National Park rangers to locate the body.

Once this news made it onto Twitter, people around the world couldn’t help but rejoice at the vigilante justice served by the elephant and lions. Poaching is wrong — the world is in danger of losing several rhino populations because of poachers. Equally at fault, though, are those who trade in the industry. Rhino horn is worth about $8,000 per pound on the black market.

As this story demonstrates, poaching is hardly worth the risks, even for the poachers themselves. Park officials are using this incident to warn others about the dangers of sneaking into the park on foot.